Students aim to skirt football prayer ruling

Published: Thursday, August 24, 2000

BOGUE CHITTO, Miss., {AP} Wide receiver Scott Edwards says high school football and prayer go hand-in-hand on Friday nights and no court can change that.

The 16-year-old son of a Baptist preacher and many of his classmates at Bogue Chitto High School are counting on fans in this little Mississippi community to restore prayer to the stadium legally with individuals deciding, on their own, to join hands and recite the Lord's Prayer.

The students' effort is part of a grass-roots movement, mainly in communities across the South, to encourage "spontaneous" prayer as a way to get around a U.S. Supreme Court ruling barring school officials from letting students lead stadium crowds in prayer.

The high court ruling in June came in a Texas case brought by two families one Catholic and one Mormon who challenged a school policy of letting students elect someone to lead the benediction.

"We have a very strong Christian atmosphere here," Scott said of the town, which has a Baptist church directly across from the 500-student school. "I feel like people have a right to express their Christian views. This is a community thing."

Football fan John Hart, who plans to attend Friday night's game, said people who don't want to pray have two options: "They can shut their ears or go somewhere else."

David Ingebretsen of the American Civil Liberties Union said the move is illegal.

"It seems to me that a planned spontaneous prayer cannot be spontaneous and it violates the court's ruling," Ingebretsen said. "If this planned, spontaneous prayer happens, it forces everyone there to hear that prayer or to participate in it."

The movement, which has gained momentum recently, was spearheaded in Mississippi by radio talk-show host Paul Ott, who used his syndicated call-in program to spread his message across the South.

Ott, who sees the removal of prayer from schools as the cause of many of the nation's ills, said he consulted with lawyers and believes individual participation is the key to avoiding a legal confrontation.